Houseplants: Handy Little Air Purifiers in Your Cincinnati Home

Categories: Indoor Air Quality, New Heating & Cooling Systems

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Common indoor houseplants could have a much bigger role in improving your home’s air quality than you may think. This article will outline the benefits of having your own houseplant air purifier, proving they are more than just an attractive decoration.

NASA’s Research

NASA’s Space program has led to more research on ways to allow for human habitation on space stations for extended periods of time. Perhaps surprisingly, many common houseplants and blooming potted plants proved to effectively battle or even eliminate pollution indoors by scrubbing considerable amounts of harmful gases out of the air via photosynthesis, an everyday process. Other pollutants can be absorbed in the soil, rendering them harmless.

Effective Air Purifiers

It was already known to plant physiologists that plants absorb carbon dioxide, as well releasing oxygen as part of their photosynthetic process. But many houseplants also absorb formaldehyde, benzene and trichloroethylene.

Of course, not all houseplants are equally effective, and some work better at removing particular pollutants than others. For instance, some may be better at scrubbing the air clean of formaldehyde, while others are better at removing benzene. Unfortunately, when it comes to tobacco smoke, none are particularly effective.

Recommendations

NASA’s studies recommend using several decent-sized houseplants set in containers of about seven inches in diameter, in order to improve indoor air quality in the average 1,800 sq. ft. house. The larger the plant, the better a job they’ll do.